upon the model of Sophocles. Even the little pieces, L'Allegro and Il
Penseroso have their source in a song of Fletcher, and two beautiful
little ballads that are ascribed to Shakespeare. But the classical model
upon which Comus was formed has not yet been discovered. It is
infinitely unlike the Pastoral Comedies both of Italy and England. And
if we could allow ourselves in that licence of conjecture, which is
become almost inseparable from the character of an editor, we should
say: That Milton having written it upon the borders of Wales, might have
had easy recourse to the manuscript whose contents are now first given
to the public: And that the singularity of preserving the name of the
place where it was first performed in the title of his poem, was
intended for an ingenuous and well-bred acknowledgement of the source
from whence he drew his choicest materials.

But notwithstanding the plausibility of these conjectures, we are now
inclined to give up our original opinion, and to ascribe the performance
to a gentleman of Wales, who lived so late as the reign of king William
the third. The name of this amiable person was Rice ap Thomas. The
romance was certainly at one time in his custody, and was handed down as
a valuable legacy to his descendants, among whom the present translator
has the honour to rank himself. Rice ap Thomas, Esquire, was a man of a
most sweet and inoffensive disposition, beloved and respected by all his
neighbours and tenants, and "passing rich with 'sixty' pounds a year."
In his domestic he was elegant, hospitable, and even sumptuous, for the
time and country in which he lived. He was however naturally of an
abstemious and recluse disposition. He abounded in singularities, which
were pardoned to his harmlessness and his virtues; and his temper was
full of sensibility, seriousness, and melancholy. He devoted the greater
part of his time to study; and he boasted that he had almost a complete
collection of the manuscript remains of our Welch bards. He was often